President David Granger is expecting Caricom Heads of Government to support Guyana’s call for a juridical settlement to the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy.
“Caricom has since its existence supported Guyana and we expect a continuation of that support,” Granger said on Thursday during the recording of the Public Interest programme on Thursday.
He was responding to a question about what he expects from next week’s Head of Governments Summit in relation to Venezuela’s continued attempts to claim large swathes of Guyana’s territory.
Granger explained that with the present Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon demitting office in six months, the government would like to see the matter set for juridical settlement before that time.
“Guyana has clearly articulated its desire to proceed with a juridical settlement and we are expecting Caricom to stand behind us and call upon the Secretary General of the United Nations to do what he is authorised to do under the Geneva agreement,” Granger said.
Guyana had written last year to Secretary General Ban, seeking a juridical settlement to the controversy. The Secretary General subsequently dispatched several missions to both Guyana and Venezuela to discuss the way forward.
Guyana’s border with Venezuela was settled by international arbitration in 1899 but Venezuela has continued to claim that this award is null and void and has called for a UN Good Officer process, established by an agreement signed in Geneva in 1996, to be used to settle the controversy.
While this issue has simmered for several years, it escalated in May last year when Venezuela issued a maritime decree claiming most of Guyana’s Atlantic waters. Since then Guyana has mounted an intense international campaign to rebuff Venezuela’s claims and to articulate the position that a juridical settlement is now necessary.
